twisting paths
by earthborn angel
Summary: What happens when Shane's adopted daughter tags along on his mission with the Plummers, and what happens when she catches the attention of a certain 15 year old?
1. meeting dad

**So, this is my first story on fanfiction, so please, only constructive criticism, Thank you and please review.**

' our mission as you all are aware is to go in and get the girl, red one you go around the right flank, red two, take the left, red three, go around and if anyone tries to jump, you know what to do.' Lt. Wolfe ordered his men, the child, they were told, was the daughter of an arabian drug lord and british intel officer gone rouge.

All three were hiding in a large boat house that was currently traveling towards the panama canal. Their mission was to cut them off before they had a chance to reach it.

'they don't have any look outs, but they do have 15 trained body guards on board, be quick and remember, I expect perfection, do you copy?'

'Sir yes sir!' Lt. Wolfe's team replied and they all suited up.

'now cora, mummy needs you to be a good girl okay? And remember, no matter what you hear-'

'i know mummy, stay quiet and stay hidden.' The five year old said quickly cutting off her mother.

Her mother looked at her with sad green eyes, the same ones the child in front of her had inherited, her long black hair, the very same her shade her father had, was tied back into two little pigtails. The older woman looked at her daughter for what would be the last time, and closed the door, leaving the child in the dark with only her stuffed bunny rabbit for comfort.

The child, cora, stood there, for what seemed like an eternity, when the boat started rocking harshly, knocking her off her feet. She wanted to cry, to scream, anything to get her mothers' attention, but she knew if she did she'd be in a lot more trouble, no, instead she waited patiently for someone to retrieve her.

And someone did, a man, he was tall and had no hair, she noticed, he easily towered over her small, 2' 5 figure.

She looked at him in awe, not knowing wether to be scared or relieved. Looking down at the little girl shane wolfe tried his best to give her a reassuring smile.

Cora looked at him suspiciously before returning the smile, and he noticed she was missing her two front teeth.

The childs' ivory skin was littered with purple areas, and he knew that they had hit her.

'have you seen my mum, she said she was gonna be back in a little bit' she said in her high pitched voice, 'she left me here with Abby, and said I had to be quiet.' The little girl informed him, hugging her stuffed rabbit tighter.

' your mommy and daddy went on a vacation for a while and told me to keep an eye on you' Lt. Wolfe felt bad about lying to the child, but he couldn't really tell her that her dad was going to be sentenced to death and her mother was now in British custody.

'but mommy always leaves me with auntie chloe and uncle Viktor.'

She argued scrunching her eyebrows together in confusion and crossing her arms over her chest.

it was in that moment that Lt. Wolfe noticed a pink scar that started on her shoulder and went all the way down to her forearm, and that was when Lt. Wolfe decided that he would personally take care of the child, so that no one would ever be able to harm her again.

-10 years later-

'Dad! What are you doing here?' A fifteen year old girl in a military uniform asked as she wrapped her arms around the tall Lt. In front of her leaving her friends to go on without her.

'well I did promise you a mission, didn't I?' Shane said as Coras' smile got wider.

'a mission? A real mission with you... Wait a minute, what's the catch?' She asked suspiciously, her jade green eyes narrowed sightly.

'no catch, just me, you and about five other kids.' Shane said

'Dad, a babysitting gig, seriously?' She asked a bit annoyed that he didn't trust her enough to go on a real mission with him.

' well I mean there's technically only three kids, one of the other ones is older than you, and the kid's your age.' He explained, when he noticed that her expression didn't change he added, 'and I really need your help with this.'

Cora automatically broke out into a grin at hearing those words.

'well, if you really need my help... Okay, I'll be ready in less than 10 minutes' she said as she ran off to her dorm before he had a chance to respond.

Cora managed to pack all her weekend clothes, shoes and not to mention accessories, it's not that she liked getting all dressed up, it's the fact that she didn't like looking like she got run by an eighteen wheeler.

Shane wasn't waiting even five minutes when his daughter came back with two bags in hand and no longer dressed in her uniform.

'wow, you really did mean ten minutes, didn't you?' shane asked

she simply smirked in response, and got in the cab.


	2. new friends, and maybe more?

**Okay guys here's chapter two, and I'm starting this at 11, so let's see how long this takes.**

The cab pulled up to a nice brick house, at least it would have been nice; if there weren't children's toys and a hot pick bicycle scattered on the lawn.

Shane looked at the house in distaste, but his daughter looked as if Christmas had come early, and she got everything she'd asked for. Perhaps it was because she had always lived on a military base, or maybe it was because she'd never had siblings of her own, or it may have been that as a child she never had any of the toys on the lawn, perchance all three, but whatever the reason she looked ecstatic as she practically ran to the front door ahead of her father.

Once at the door she waited patiently for Shane, though it looked like she wanted nothing more than to break the door down and hug the first person she saw.

Shane walked over to her calmly, stepping on a _troll_ doll, and having to run past the sprinklers which had started unexpectedly, all while watching his _daughter_ laugh at his front the front porch.

He let her ring the doorbell, only because she looked as if she would burst if she didn't do anything soon, a little girl answered she looked now more than twelve, with long straight brown hair which fell a past her shoulders, who screamed at the sight of Lt. Wolfe, and slammed the door in their faces.

"Wow dad, not even a full minute and you manage to freak out the kids." Cora remarked her green eyes full of laughter.

"I mean, come on, you're not _that_ bad." She continued.

"One more remark like that and I'll consider sending you back to base." Shane said, her eyes immediately becoming wide at his statement.

The next person to open the door was a woman who looked to be in her mid-thirties with short dirty blonde hair and a petite frame holding a boy who looked around three years old with light brown hair.

"You must be Lt. Wolfe, Admiral Blair said you'd be coming." She said as she pulled Shane into an awkward one armed hug which he found difficult to return, the woman then looked over at the girl standing next to him and pulled her into a hug as well which Cora returned. "And you are…" the woman trailed off.

"Cora Wolfe." The brunette said.

"C-c-c" Mrs. Plummer tried pronouncing the odd name on her tongue.

"Or you can call me Jay, for short." Cora, or Jay if you will, said and Mrs. Plummer smiled gratefully.

"Okay, Jay it is." She said, "Now come on in, meet the rest of the gang." She said as she led Lt. Wolfe and Jay into her home.

"Kids! Get your butts down here!" she shouted up the stairs as the child from earlierstood up from her spot at the bottom step.

Jay gave her a small smile, which the child returned.

"Kay, you've already met Lulu," she said gesturing to the girl, "this is Zoe," she said as a girl with blonde hair tied up in a ponytail came down the stairs wearing a soft pink top and a slightly darker shade of pink for her skirt came to stand besides Lulu. "Seth." She said as a guy who looked to be about Jay's age followed Zoe, he had brown hair that came to the back of his neck, that was covered in a black beanie. He immediately caught Jay's attention as she looked at his blue eyes and smiled, and bit her lip shyly, while he gave her a nervous smile in return, which made her blush, Shane taking no notice of the exchange.

"And Peter." Mrs. Plummer finished off as she set Peter down.

"Kids, this is Lt. Wolfe and Jay," she said pausing to look at Jay, who nodded slightly, still not having the guts to look at Seth. "they're the ones who're going to be staying with you while I'm away." She said.

"Hi." Lulu and Zoe said at the same time, Seth stayed looking at the ground not knowing whether to look at her again or not.

"Hi." Shane replied, a bit nervously seeing as her had never taken care of more than one child, and now he was responsible for five, if he didn't count his own.

"Hey." Jay said giving a nervous wave.

Another lady came into the room from behind the stairs carrying a baby boy in her arms, she looked to be in her forties if not older, and Jay doubted she was younger by the number of wrinkles around her eyes. Her hair was greying near the top, and it looked lifeless.

"Oh, and this is Helga, and Tyler." Mrs. Plummer said as she touched her sons' arm.

"Ma'am, baby." Shane said and Jay rolled her eyes.

Jay stayed silent, after all, if you have noting nice to say don't say it right?

"That's a pretty dress." Julie commented looking at what the babysitter was wearing.

"thank you, I have date 'vith Butcher tonight, I 'vant to look nice." And no sooner hand she finished the baby, Tyler, threw up all over her chest, and Cora seemed to be the only one who understood when Helga called him an 'evil little puking machine' in her native language.

Shane noticed when Cora started to laugh and put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed sharply making her stand up straighter.

"Seth, why don't you show Jay up to the guest room," Julie Plummer suggested.

"Sure, come on, this way." He said as he waited for her while his siblings went upstairs and the adults went into the kitchen.

"I'm Seth, by the way." He said as he offered to take her bag.

"Thanks, I'm Cora, or you can call me Jay, or Jade, whatever you want really it doesn't matter to me, I mean my friends at base call me wolfie, I'm rambling, sorry, I'll shut up now." She said as she forced herself to be quite, it wasn't really her fault that she seemed to babble on and on when she got nervous, especially around boys.

Seth laughed slightly. "Wolfie, Seriously? Wow, nice friends." He said well, at least she broke the ice.

"Yeah, but whatever I guess right? Anyways, do you have any nicknames, or is it just Seth?" she asked.

"Well, people normally just call me Seth." 'Or creeper.' He added in his head quietly.

"Well here it is." He said as he opened the door to the guest bedroom where his Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Tony usually stayed when they came over.

"um, my room's right here, and your dad's is right next to yours." He said gesturing to the room across from hers.

"thanks." She said as she smiled at him. "I should probably try and unpack my things."

"Oh yeah, right, here." He said as he handed her the suit case, and he walked into his room leaving the door open slightly, and she did the same thing, walked into the guest room and left the door open just enough so she could see his drawing something at his desk.

Mrs. Plummer finished saying her goodbyes to the children and got in the cab everyone immediately walked inside as soon as the car was out of sight, leaving Lt. Wolfe and his daughter outside.

"Cora, Mrs. Plummer informed me that there was a break in a few weeks ago, so keep an eye out for anything suspicious." He told her in a serious tone.

"Yes sir." She responded going into military mode and looking around the front lawn before going inside.

A duck flew past her and she gave a slight yelp in surprise.

"That's Gary, he was dads'." Seth said as he got close to her.

"So he's a pet?" she asked skeptically

"Yeah, what, don't have many ducks at your old school or what?" he mocked her with a smirk on his face.

"Yeah, because a military base has ducks everywhere you look." She replied sarcastically.

"Come on, I wanna show you something." she said as she grabbed ahold of his hand not noticing the flush that came to his cheeks.

"whoa, you drew this?" he asked from her spot on the floor next to her.

"Yeah, I know it not that very good, but whenever I have free time I'll draw a little bit, just to pass the time." She replied softly, glancing at his face from time to time.

"wow, if this is not that good, then I wanna see your best ones." He said, looking through her sketch book, most of the drawings were of people he didn't know, but they were amazing, and it looked like most of them weren't even aware she was drawing them, they were doing things like coping down notes, or taking pictures, some were laughing, others looked as if they had just woken up, and some of them were even marching.

"I usually give those away." She said

"To who?"

"Anyone, usually the person in the picture."

"oh." He said simply as they heard the sirens go off down stairs.

**So guys what do you think so far? If I'm being honest I feel kind of stupid that I'm writing and I don't know if anyone is reading it or not, anyways, please review it would mean so much to me.**


	3. Seeing mom

**Okay guys, here's the third chapter, and please, review because I really want to know what you guys think. **

**_ON WITH THE STORY_**

They didn't need to go all the way downstairs apparently Zoë's' boyfriend decided to visit, and Shane had caught him in the act of sneaking in, or rather trying to, as smart as he is, he didn't bother to think that anyone would be home if Mrs. Plummer left, note the sarcasm.

At least that was what Jay and Seth managed to scrap from all the arguing jay's father and Seth's sister, but they didn't know for sure, it all sounded like gibberish to them, but they still stood at Seth's door listening.

"Bed now!" Lt. Wolfe ordered the two teenagers as he walked down the stairs Jay rolled her eyes and told the boy goodnight, but instead of walking into her room she went across the hall and into Zoe's room.

"What do you want?! This entire family would be better off without you or your dad!" the angry and annoyed blonde shouted at the brunette. Jay didn't respond she simple took a magnet strip out of her pocket and pit it on the blonde's window and opened it without the alarms going off.

"What?" Zoe asked confused

"Magnets, tricks it into thinking that the censor's still attached, just be here before twelve, that's when he usually checks the rooms." Jay said before walking out the blonde's door.

Zoe looked curiously at the spot where Jay once stood. Taking this as her chance she called her boyfriend, telling him she'd soon meet him.

Before snuggling into the cool sheets Jay pulled out a small worn out bunny rabbit from her suitcase, the very same rabbit that she had the day Shane had unofficially adopted her. She didn't remember much about that day, just blurs here and there, mainly a beautiful woman with green eyes and gorgeous red hair who, she was later told by Shane, was her mother. She remembered that day vividly, because let's face it, it's not every day you get told you're adopted.

**-Eight years earlier-**

It was parents' day at Cora's school; every kid had their moms or dads' at their side, some even had both, Cora only had her father, and it wasn't until a few months back that the seven year old had taken to calling Lt. Wolfe dad, it had always been Shane or Sir, she never dared to call him anything more personal. She feared that her real father might one day show up randomly and take her back, though that day never came, and slowly she got used to the word.

After the presentations were done and the kids acted out a play for the parents they were free to go home early. The car ride to Shane's apartment was a lengthy seeing as she didn't say much, or rather anything at all; she just looked out the window, her eyes blank.

Dinner preceded in the same manner not a peep out of the raven haired child; she didn't speak unless spoken to.

"Alright, are you gonna tell me what wrong or am I going to have to tickle it out of you?" Shane threatened playfully from across the table; this earned a small smile out of her before she went back to her blank expression.

"Dad, why don't I have a mom?" she asked suddenly Shane nearly choked on his food, his eyes grew wide.

"Why would you ask something like that Cora, aren't you happy with me?" he asked, few times had Lt. Wolfe felt surprised or self-conscious, and his daughter had just made him feel both.

"No, it's not that I'm happy, but today everyone had a mommy there, some had both, but how come I don't have one?" she asked slowly so as not to hurt his feelings; she really was happy here with Shane, but she wanted a mom, someone who'd talk to her about clothes, and boys, and she loved Shane, but she didn't want to talk about boys with him.

"I guess it would hurt to know who your mom was, how about this, tomorrow I'll take you down to base and I'll show you a picture of her, okay?" He asked, he wouldn't tell her the bad things, like what she did or anything like that he'd keep it minimal and he'd show her some of the pictures.

A wide grin covered her face, "Okay." She said she quickly finished up her meal and kissed her dad goodnight.

That day she dreamed about what her mother would look like, tall beautiful, she'd be better than any of the other moms' her bullies had.

"Wake up, wake up, come on dad, you promised, up!" she shouted as she jumped on the free areas on his bed making sure so as not to step on him.

"Alright, I'm up." He shouted in defeat as he grabbed the seven year old and lifted her so that her feet weren't touching the bed, making her squeal in delight.

"Give me an hour then we'll go." He said she grinned wider and ran out of his room leaving him with his thoughts.

She ran to her room at this age she already knew how to dress herself, the only clothes she bought her consisted of cargo pants, t-shirts, and combat boots; and any color in her wardrobe consisted of black, white, or grey.

The other women took pity on her and bought her some 'real' clothes as they liked to call it, which held much more variety such as skirts, shorts, jeans, dresses, things a girl her age should be wearing.

Cora pulled out a pair of jeans and a black and white striped shirt and her All-stars, she brushed her raven hair back into a low pony tail.

Going to the kitchen she poured herself a bowl of cereal and a glass of juice to accompany it. By the time Shane came out she'd already washed her dishes, her teeth, and was currently watching Saturday morning cartoons.

"Ready?" Shane asked interrupting Scooby-doo, she looked up and grinned nodding her head, she quickly got up turned off the t.v. and ran to her dad.

They couldn't get to the base fast enough in Cora's opinion, she was literally bouncing where she stood, waiting for Lt. Wolfe to be granted access.

He motioned for her to follow him down the long, dreary hallways, they finally reached a solid steal door and after swiping his i.d. they proceeded into the room.

This room was different from the others, mainly because of the cold feeling it gave off and there seemed to be a lot less color in that room, not that the other rooms gave off the hippie vibe or anything, they just seemed to be more cheerful to Cora than this one.

Shane pointed to a table and motioned for her to take a seat, there were few others in the room and most were so immersed in their gadgets that they didn't bother looking at them. There were two massive computers in the corner along with a few desks and a filing cabinet, which was where Shane was standing rifling thru one of the drawers; he finally seemed to find what he was looking for.

He pulled out a mammoth sized binder and motioned for her to follow him out the door. As soon as they were free of the bleak room Cora kept trying to peak over her dads shoulder, but the man was massive compared to her 4'2 ft. frame.

They left the base and Lt. Wolfe took her to the nearby park, he got her an ice cream cone and sat with her at one of the few tables.

"Okay," he called her attention as he set the binder labeled 'Rosalyn White' on the edge, "I'm gonna show you some pictures now, don't freak out okay?" he said looking the young girl in the eyes. She nodded slowly trying to keep calm.

He opened the binder revealing all the pictures intelligence had collected about her in the five years after she went rogue, from the moment she left to a week before they captured her.

Cora's eyes widened at the first sight of her mom, she had been right when she said she was beautiful, her hair was a deep red, her eyes looked green in the picture, she had a creamy completion and not at all like Cora whose skin was sun kissed.

Turing the page she saw more pictures of her, walking down the street, at restaurants, some had her with a man, the same man who kept appearing in other pictures, some pictures she appeared pregnant, one thing was certain: she was always serious unless she was with that man, none of the pictures ever showed his face, but Cora knew who he was, and they looked very happy together, laughing, smiling, they were even dancing in one picture.

Near the end there were pictures that showed her carrying a baby, then a toddler and Cora automatically knew it was her, her mother looked so happy holding her, having her around.

She wanted to keep some of the pictures but knew Shane wouldn't let her, that's when she noticed the vending machine across the park by the bathrooms, immediately an idea formed in her head.

"Daddy I'm thirsty." She said he rolled his eyes "Alright, I'll go get you a water bottle, will you be alright by yourself?" he asked, she nodded and rolled her eyes. "Yeah dad, I'm not a baby." She said, he laughed slightly and walked off.

Using this as her chance she peeled back the plastic on the pictures she wanted and put them between the waistband of her jeans and her underwear and pulled her shirt over it hiding them, and prayed to god that Shane wouldn't look though the pictures anymore.

He came back and she drank all her bottle in one gulp. "Okay, I'm kinda tired, can we go home?" she asked sounding hopeful, Shane smiled and nodded.

**-Back to present day-**

Shane never found out about her stealing the pictures, but could you blame her, she'd never seen her mother. To this day she had the pictures of her mother tucked away in the back of her sketch book; she'd look at them every so often, but never when he was around.

Ever since that day her mom had become the object of most of her drawings, she hadn't shown those to Seth; she didn't want to explain how she didn't have a real mom to talk to, that part never came true, she still longed for someone to talk to.

With that last, kinda depressing, thought Cora fell into a deep sleep.

**_Authors Note_**

**Okay I know I haven't been updating as often as I'd like, but I had school in the beginning, then I had summer projects, then my mom got sick and she's been in the hospital, but she's getting better and I hope to review more often. For those of you who read my Hunger Games story I'm working on the update, just don't give up on it, Thanks –B.**


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